What cost farm-to-plate traceability?
What cost farm-to-plate traceability?
A major research project to develop methods of confirming
the origin of samples of meat, using DNA profiles and
electronic identification of animals and cuts of meat
in the abattoir, is now underway. John Burns reports
IN theory, a piece of meat can be traced back to the animal it came from, giving true farm-to-plate traceability. But whether this is practical and economic will be revealed in an EU study.
Full traceability will depend on the degree to which meat from an individual animal can be kept separate at the abattoir and beyond. Its uptake will depend on cost, so a cost-benefit analysis is an important part of the project.
The three-year project is 50% financed by the EU and in-volves 10 partners from Spain, Italy, France, Germany, UK and Eire.
It comes under a broad programme run by the European Commissions Directorate E (Health, Food and Environment), under the heading Quality of Life and Management of Living Resources and is one of a group of projects referred to as FAIR 5th.
The main objective is to develop a reliable system for traceability of livestock and meat based on use of electronic identification (EID) and molecular markers (DNA).
According to the projects partners, successful EID-based recording systems would help farm and abattoir management and administration, as well as providing a means to trace the origin of meat samples.
The ability to automatically read and record an animals identity will be achieved using radio frequency transponders carried in rumen boluses for cattle and sheep, and in implants for pigs, they add.
From the carcass stage onwards, automatic identification linking pieces of meat to the animal they came from can be achieved using labels carrying a transponder and a barcode. The partners hope research will establish their practicality and the cost implications of extending their use to various stages in the processing chain.
The partners will also investigate the use of DNA profiling to provide full and true traceability from the consumers plate back to an individual animal on a farm.
If a serious food safety problem arose it should be possible to prepare a DNA profile of the meat and compare it against a central database of samples taken from the live animal when its EID was established. The costs and practicalities of a scheme to take and store DNA samples will also be investigated.
The UK is represented in this EU trial by Shearwell Data, a company built up by Exmoor producer Richard Webber.
He hopes to unlock the benefits of keeping more detailed records linked to individual animals and collating them for analysis to feed data back to producers.
"The potential benefits are enormous. But they will need foolproof, reliable automatic identification of animals linked to automatic recording and transmission of performance information."
Mr Webber believes such systems are on the way, but there is still much room for improvement. A major step forward would be development of effective readers which could transmit data accurately, without cables, direct to a computer.
And there is a need for computer programmes which can receive, record and analyse the information.
Shearwell has been active on both fronts for 10 years, including developing the concept of a producer-owned National Livestock Management Database (NLMD).
Mr Webber hopes NLMD will ensure producers retain ownership of valuable information which is currently exploited by many allied industries. If, as expected, the EUs aim of all livestock identified by fraud-proof electronic methods and linked to a central database comes to fruition, Mr Webber believes NLMD would come into its own.
"Weve put our own money into the NLMD, but we cant go on much longer. Producers must now decide whether they want to allow others to cash in on their data, or work together and realise its true value, when its gathered together in one place and properly analysed."
Apart from Mr Webbers own farm, which will provide the 1000 lambs needed for the sheep element of the UK project, the first farm to have EID boluses given to calves is that run by Ian and Mo Frood in Essex.
"As chairman of NFUs EID committee and FABBL, we felt it would be very helpful if Mr Frood took part in the research and had some hands-on experience of the equipment and techniques involved," says Mr Webber.
Young calves are given boluses containing transponders which give them unique identities linked to their BCMS tag number. They are also given a purple eartag to indicate they have a bolus in their reticulum. Samples of hair follicles and blood are taken for DNA profiling.
Hair follicles are taken from every calf, but only about 5% will be DNA profiled for the project. About 0.1% of the animals will have blood samples taken for comparative checks against the follicle samples.
Producing DNA profiles from blood is much more expensive because it involves a more complicated process. "Hair follicle samples have the additional advantage that they can be stored long-term at room temperature, reducing storage costs," says Mr Webber.
Most of the other beef cattle needed will come from the Exmoor Quality Beef Producers group which Shearwell has worked with before. *
TRACINGMEAT
• Major project begun.
• EID a key part.
• DNA samples collected.